DocketNumber: 29,055
Judges: Bobbitt, Draper, Emmert, Gilkison
Filed Date: 4/20/1954
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 10/19/2024
This is an appeal from a judgment for the appellee who was defendant to a complaint for writ of habeas corpus. We overruled appellee’s motion here to dismiss the appeal, and the cause has been briefed upon the merits.
Appellant contends that §9-2250, Burns’ 1942' Replacement (Supp.), vests judicial functions in an administrative board in violation of Article 3, and §1 of Article 7 of the Indiana Constitution. This statute provides:
“Any prisoner who has been sentenced and committed ‘to the Indiana State Prison, Indiana Women’s Prison or the Indiana Reformatory, and has been released upon parole therefrom and while at large upon such parole said prisoner shall commit another crime and upon conviction thereof shall be sentenced anew to one of the institutions named herein, said prisoner shall be subject to serve the second sentence after the first sentence is served or annulled and the second sentence is to commence from the termination of his or her liability upon the the first or former sentence.” Section 9-2550, Burns’ 1942 Replacement (Supp.), [Acts 1947, ch. 61, §1, p. 205].
We cannot agree that appellant began serving the second sentence on the day it was pronounced and entered by the Vanderburgh Circuit Court. In Dowd v. Basham (1954), 233 Ind. 207, 116 N. E. 2nd 632, 635, we construed §9-2250, Burns’ 1942 Replacement (Supp.), and in an opinion by Chief Justice Draper, said:
“The terms of a sentence must be read, construed, and executed in the light of applicable statutory provisions. In the situation presented here the law fixed the time when appellee’s service of the sentence pronounced on October 10, 1947, should begin to run. It fixed that time as the date upon which the appellee’s liability upon the former sentences terminated. The punishment adjudged by the court under the earlier sentences was for the maximum term prescribed by the statute. The earlier termination of it was a matter within the discretion of the board of trustees, and the discretion of the board in that respect is not subject to the control or supervision of the courts. The power to shorten a prisoner’s period of service under an indeterminate sentence is not judicial. It is a ministerial or administrative power with which the court has no concern. Miller v. The State (1898), 149 Ind. 607, 49 N. E. 894, 40 L. R. A. 109; Terry v. Byers (1903), 161 Ind. 360, 68 N. E. 596; State v. Page (1899), 60 Kan. 664, 57 P. 514.”
The action by the Board of Trustees of the prison added nothing to the effect of the statute, since the statute was self-executing. Dowd v. Basham (1954), 233 Ind. 207, 116 N. E. 2d 632, supra; Canfield v. Commissioners (1937), 280 Mich. 305, 273 N. W. 578, supra. The Act is constitutional, and the trial court correctly found for the appellee warden.
Judgment affirmed.
Flanagan, J., concurs.
Draper, C. J., concurs in result with separate opinion.
Gilkison, J., concurs in part with separate opinion.
Bobbitt, J., concurs with opinion.
. “The law allowing him credit for good time entered into the judgment as if written therein, and, therefore, by the very language of the judgment the appellant’s time expired on the 13th of December, 1889.” Woodward v. Murdock (1890), 124 Ind. 439, 444, 24 N. E. 1047.
“And so here the reformatory act may be read into the judgment whenever necessary to make the meaning of the judgment clear or to make it effectual.” Miller v. State (1898), 149 Ind. 607, 617, 49 N. E. 894.
“So likewise the judgment in the present instance shall' be considered the same as if the judgment has specifically stated that the defendant was sentenced to the Indiana State Prison, subject, however, to be transferred to another penal institution by the Board of Public Welfare.” Mellot v. State (1942), 219 Ind. 646. 652. 653. 40 N. E. 2d 655.